When my good friend Tatiana Regan first moved down to Mexico to live with her partner she couldn’t speak a word of Spanish, something which caused an awful lot of frustration. I had studied modern languages at college so we would always be on the phone or texting one another to give her some support. In fact after her second month out there we started to have some classes where I would show her the basics. Tatiana and I didn’t really talk about language for a few months and then I suggested that we pick up the classes again and when I spoke to her this time, her language had improved drastically. I asked how she had improved so much and she began to tell me how she used entertainment, and here is how you can too.

Movies

Movies are a great way to learn a new language, especially if the movie is not in your language and you put subtitles below. This makes learning a new language much easier because you are being entertained as you learn, which does take the pressure off learning somewhat. Furthermore you can really understand context when you are hearing certain words which further solidifies your knowledge. You will never be able to learn a language by solely watching movies but as Tatiana has proved they can be a great way to support your learning. If you are feeling quite advance then try what I suggested to Tatiana, which is to watch a Disney movie or one aimed at children, but without the subtitles.

Social Media

Tatiana Regan decided after a short while that she needed to address her social media in order to help her further learn the language. Social media can be great because there is very often a translation tool which you can use to see if you understand what is being said. Remember that you can customize your Instagram and Twitter accounts so that you see more Spanish on your timeline, which can then help you to pick up words and phrases which you perhaps didn’t know previously. Another great use of social media is to download apps like HelloTalk, an app which I recommended to Tatiana which she found great use from, and an app which puts you in touch with fellow language learners so that you can help each other.

Music

Thanks to her partner’s influence Tatiana began to listen to a lot more music in Spanish which she would then try to use as a learning tool. Tatiana would write the lyrics out and then try to translate what they were saying, checking with her partner for accuracy. Music doesn’t just help you to learn different words and how they can be used but it can also be a huge help when it comes to your pronunciation.

If you are learning a language then why not follow in Tatiana Regan’s footsteps and use entertainment as a way to boost your learning!